Creative Writing – The Hermit Crab Essay

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This week at the creative writing workshop, we are going to work on hermit crab essays.

Date: Monday (1st of April) 5:00 pm

Venue: American Corner Szeged (23. Kálvária sgt., Szeged)

Program: Creative Writing Workshop.

The concept is simple but very flexible: writing an essay borrowing a form from another form of writing. (You can use this for fiction or even poetry as well!) For example, an essay can be a grocery list, a want ad, an online dating profile, a recipe, an instruction manual, liner notes to an album, a Wikipedia article, scribbled notes in the margins of something else, a scientific study, or just about anything else. Some of the most touching, poignant, funny, or thought-provoking essays take the unexpected form of something we are used to seeing every day. Stop by to practice a creative, fun, and flexible form of essay!

Two of my favorite hermit crab essays:
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a fictional story takes the form of advice from a mother to her daughter. http://www.saginaw-twp.k12.mi.us/view/8490.pdf
“We Regret to Inform You,” in which Brenda Miller imagines a life as a series of rejection letters. https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/455/we-regret-to-inform-you

Facilitator: Daniel Nyikos (SZTE, IEAS)

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